3 pseudo naxals held for extortion bid in Andhra Pradesh

HYDERABAD: Three pseudo naxals who tried to extort Rs 30 lakh from a general store owner at S R Nagar were on Wednesday night nabbed by task force sleuths from Patigadda at Begumpet.

The three arrested include kingpin D Satyanarayana (33), a driver, R Laxminarayana (39) a businessman and G Mahesh Goud (20), all residents of Patigadda. Satyanarayana was earlier involved in similar pseudo naxal crimes registered in Mahankali, Ramgopalpet and Musheerabad police stations. He was even convicted to two years imprisonment in one case but appealed in a higher court, task force officials said.

Mahesh used to work at the general store owned by Gandhe Laxminarayana in S R Nagar. He was the room-mate of the other accused R Laxminarayana and reportedly passed on information that the general store made good money. R Laxminarayana in turn passed on the information to Satyanarayana.

“The trio hatched the plot to extort money from the businessman posing as members of the CPI (Maoist). They went to Cheriyal in Warangal district and made calls from public booths there to the businessman’s cell phone to make him believe that they were naxals,” said task force inspector B Limba Reddy.

The three also wrote to the businessman on fake CPI (Maoist) letter heads demanding Rs 30 lakh towards party fund.Link